Sunday, April 19, 2009

A couple weeks ago, I was filling the cat food dish and I was surprised by a small amount of ants scurrying about the food bowl and the mat it was on. We have never had any type of insect (other than the random spider) in the house, so this was a shock. They were tiny ants similar to fire ants I remember from Texas, but they were slow moving and did not bite. I cleaned up the area and my wife bought some organic ant spray (as to not harm the cats) and we sprayed the area and thought it was a fluke.

Well to my surprise, 30 or so were wandering around on the bathroom tile a couple days ago. I could not tell where they were coming from, but this was the last straw. I went to the store and got some Raid ant hotels. I tracked them down to a small hole in the corner between the tub and the tile wall. The hole is just small enough for them to come in and out single file. I could have sprayed and sealed the hole, but what would be the fun in that? I wanted them to feast on the ant bait so I put 2 hotels right there in the corner.

They found the bait traps, and holy crap, they like, no wait, they love them! The good thing is, they no longer wander around the bathroom floor, they just hang out at the ant hotel. The theory is, they will eat it and take it back to the colony and it will kill the whole colony. I hope this works and I will keep you updated.

You already know I do not subscribe to global warming hype, but we have lived in this house for over 20 years and never had ants in the house of any kind. A couple times last summer, I did notice the same type (I assume) of ant in the driveway coming up through the cracks. 2 or 3 times in the early morning, they would come out of their nests and swarm together in softball sized ant balls. At that time I went and got some fancy type of granular pesticide recommended by the guy at the co-op. It would get rid of them for a few days, and they would just move to another crack.

I wonder if they are some type of mutant super ant? Maybe someone that has had success ridding their house or yard of this super-ant could post a comment!